News

Sufjan Stevens has revealed his latest project Reflections, a score to his frequent collaborator Justin Peck’s ballet of the same name. It’ll be out today, May 19th via his own label Asthmatic Kitty.

Stevens wrote Reflections for two pianos, while Peck, whose recent credits also include Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake, choreographed its eleven dancers. The Houston Ballet originally commissioned the show, which premiered on March 21st, 2019. Piano might not be Stevens’ first instrument (fun fact: it was the oboe), but the format lends itself to moving and whimsical compositions. Per his words, the score is meant to emanate “energy, light, and duality,” although he certainly doesn’t take himself too seriously here: The closing track is called “And I Shall Come to You Like a Stormtrooper in Drag Serving Imperial Realness.”

“I’m constantly thinking about bodies moving through space when I’m writing for...

The music Sufjan Stevens composed for a Justin Peck-choreographed ballet will get an official studio album release with Reflections on May 19. On Tuesday, Stevens announced the release of the project performed by Timo Andres and Conor Hanick, and dropped its first single “Ekstasis.”

“Having two of them at my disposal was an exciting opportunity and gave me a real catharsis about the expansiveness of the instrument,” Stevens said in a release.

The new song “embodies” the themes of Reflections as a whole, according to a press release. And the...

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

The 93 submissions for the best international feature award at the 2020 Oscars have been announced, and Screen has kept a list of all the entries below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

Scroll down for latest entries

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

The final film of Jan Nemec, who died in March, to play in the main competition.Scroll down for competition line-ups

The 51st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 1-9) has unveiled the competition titles in its Official Selection, East of the West and Documentary sections.

The 12-strong main competition will comprise eight world premieres and four international premieres, including the last film from renowned Czech director Jan Nemec, who died in March.

The Czech filmmaker was a notable voice of the country’s New Wave movement of the 1960s with titles such as Diamonds Of The Night (1964). His final film, The Wolf From Royal Vineyard Street, will world premiere at Kviff and is an adaptation of his own quasi-autobiographical short stories.

Other titles include Slovak-Czech drama The Teacher from Jan Hrebejk while Roberto Andò is returning to Kviff with The Confessions, three years after his hit Viva la Libertà.

Debut features...

Labyrinth Of Lies director Giulio Ricciarelli with Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: Aimee Morris

I met up with the director of Germany's Oscar submission, Labyrinth Of Lies (Im Labyrinth Des Schweigens), Giulio Ricciarelli, at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, where I previously engaged Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth on working with Nick Cave, plus Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders on The Salt Of The Earth earlier this year. Chet Baker's music was playing in the lobby, reminding me of Bruce Weber's Let's Get Lost, upon entering the labyrinth to discuss Ricciarelli's impressive debut feature. It stars Alexander Fehling of Inglourious Basterds fame, with Johannes Krisch (Finsterworld, Revanche), André Szymanski, Friederike Becht, Johann von Bülow and Mathis Reinhardt, and is dedicated to the late great stage actor, Gert Voss, who is spectacular as the unsung real-life hero State Attorney General Fritz Bauer.

Alexander Fehling as Johann Radmann

Claude Lanzmann...

The fare on offer at the Spanish film festival underlines film-makers' enduring fascination with the doppelganger

The San Sebastián film festival is in its fourth day, and if there's a theme emerging, it's this: doubles, mirror images, doppelgangers. All over the festival, actors are bumping enigmatically into themselves.

In Arie Posin's The Face of Love, Annette Bening plays a woman whose husband (Ed Harris) tragically dies: some time later, she finds herself attracted to a man with a striking resemblance to her late partner, played of course by Ed Harris. In Denis Villeneuve's Enemy, Jake Gyllenhaal plays a regular guy with a regular life who bumps into a minor-league actor with an uncanny resemblance to him: Gyllenhaal again.

I arrived at the festival last night, in time to see Cannibal, directed by Manuel Martín Cuenca. It's about a homicidal young tailor in Granada called Carlos, with a sinister...

Götz Spielmann presents his new film at this years Toronto International Film Festival. It's a story about two sisters who meet in a small Austrian village to be with their dying father. According to the official synopsis: A new chapter begins; old relationships are reconfigured. The reunion slowly but relentlessly brings to light old conflicts between the so very different sisters. Spielmann is one of the most successful contemporary Austrian filmmakers. He became internationally famous in 2008 for his film Revanche, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film. This film appears to be a sparse drama, a character study about families with issues under the backdrop of gorgeous scenery. The film screens at Tiff tonight, followed by two more screenings on...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Götz Spielmann’s “October November” might be the quietest drama of 2013, an intimate, somber study of one family’s unsaid truths. It is also, however, a film that leaves little impression, making it a step backwards—or, at the very least, sideways—for the director of the stunning “Revanche.” Spielmann’s 2008 character study/thriller was deservedly nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar (2009), and drew an international spotlight to the Austrian filmmaker. His much-anticipated follow-up, “October November,” made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and while it plays reasonably well in a festival setting, it is unlikely to make waves worldwide. It is a family tale, a European cousin of some of Woody Allen’s Bergman-esque dramas (specifically “Interiors” and even “September”); if Mike Leigh had not already used the title “Secrets and Lies,” it would have been dead-on here. Sonja (Nora von Waldstätten) and Verena...

Atom Egoyan, Götz Spielmann and Jasmila Žbanic have been added the official selection at the 61st San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Three new titles have joined those already announced for the official competition of the festival, which runs from Sept 20-28.

They include Devil’s Knot, starring Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon, from Us director Atom Egoyan. He competed four years ago in the 57th edition of the festival with Chloe. Egoyan returns with a true mystery of who killed three children in a small town.

Also added are For Those Who Can Tell No Tales by Bosian filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić, winner of the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2006 with her film Grbavica.

Žbanić returns to the traumatic past of the Balkan War through Kym, an Australian tourist who decides to travel to Višegrad, a small town on the border of Bosnia and Serbia, where she discovers what happened there during the war.

The third new...

Final batch of Tiff titles were announced today and among the international hodgepodge of items trickling we find Berlin (Golden Bear winner Child’s Pose), Cannes (The Selfish Giant – Europa Cinemas Label winner and Stranger by the Lake by Alain Guiraudie), Karlovy Vary (Crystal Globe winner Le Grand Cahier ) and Locarno (Corneliu Porumboiu’s When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism) Film Fest items added to the Toronto Int. Film Festival’s Contemporary World Cinema lineup. Alongside those that have already premiered elsewhere, the titles that have got our attention are world premiere offerings from the likes of award-winning Icelandic helmer Ragnar Bragason (Metalhead), Revanche‘s Götz Spielmann (October November – see pic above) and Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke’s Club Sandwich. Here’s the added titles to the section which already includes: Catherine Martin’s A Journey (Une Jeune Fille), Ingrid Veninger’s The Animal Project, Terry Miles’ Cinemanovels, Bruce Sweeney...

From sex tourism to care-home degradation, Haneke and co venture undaunted into areas that Hollywood fears to tread

If Hollywood's knights of raucous mise-en-scene – Michael Bay, Zack Snyder, Roland Emmerich, etc – are there to uphold the gleaming castle of entertainment, I like to think there's a shadowy league ranged against them, beyond the mountains of the Old World. No bodacious starlets for this cabal, no multimillion-dollar CGI sprees; no high-octane street racing, or talking mammoths, or cheap affirmative morality. Nope, for the Austrian League of Extraordinarily Pessimistic Gentlemen, it's only the good stuff: sex tourism, the disappointment of immigrants, care-home degradation, suburban paedophilia, irrational violence, industrial farming and, lest we forget, latent Nazism.

Who are its members? There's Ulrich Seidl, dissecting modern aspirations in his Paradise trilogy; Götz Spielmann, whose impassive framing of his 2008 thriller Revanche hinted there might be such a thing as an "Austrian" style; Nikolaus Geyrhalter, the...

Oktober November

Director: Götz Spielmann

Writer(s): Barbara Albert, Martin Gschlacht, Jessica Hausner, Antonin Svoboda/Götz Spielmann

Producer(s): Antonin Svoboda, Martin Gschlacht, Bruno Wagner, Götz Spielmann

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available

Cast: Nora von Waldstätten, Ursula Strauss, Peter Simonischek, Sebastian Koch, Johannes Zeiler

Soaked in dread, heavy on the atmospherics and with a production value of the highest caliber, his seventh feature film, 2008′s Revanche was one hell of a manner to introduce filmmaker Götz Spielmann to a vast number of cinephiles. We’re hoping for more of the same with this one.

Gist: Two sisters, very different. Their father, whose life is ending. A guesthouse in the mountains. A family history.

Release Date: Revanche was featured at the Berlin Film Fest, and while this won’t be ready in time for Cannes, I’m thinking it’ll be submitted to Venice

prev next...

Still from Sonchidi

The 3rd edition of Naya Cinema Festival, to be held in Mumbai from November 22-25, will screen Amit Dutta’s Sonchidi and Nainsukh. Both films were selected for Venice Film Festival in 2011 and 2010 respectively.

Anand Gandhi’s Ship of Theseus will also be screened at the festival.

Organised by Enlighten Film Society, the festival will be held at Russian Centre, Pedder Road, Mumbai.

The registration fee for the festival is Rs 599 that includes delegate pass for the entire festival, a festival booklet and access to online festival from 12th December, 2012 to 15th January, 2013. For registration, click here.

Festival programme:

22nd November, 2012

Pickpocket

Dir.: Robert Bresson

Time: 12 pm. (B&W / France / 1959 / 75 mins)

Trial of Joan of Arc

Dir.: Robert Bresson

Time: 1:30 pm (Colour / France / 1962 / 65 mins)

The Wages of Fear

Dir.: Henri-Georges Clouzot

Time: 3:15 pm (B&W / France / 1953 / 147 mins)

12

Dir.: Henri-Georges Clouzot

Time:...

William Moseley has joined the cast of The Silent Mountain. Moseley, best known for his Peter Pevensie role in the Chronicle of Narnia movies, will play a young lover in the romantic drama. The British-born Moseley was selected earlier this year as one of the leads in the CW pilot The Selection. While not picked up, the show could air midseason. Silent Mountain tells the story of a young couple preparing to get married as Europe descends into World War I. Ernst Gossner will direct. Heinz Stussak, producer of the Oscar nominated Revanche, will produce The Silent Mountain. Eugenia Costantini plays the other young lover. Claudia Cardinale also stars. The film is scheduled to start shooting in Italy later this month. Moseley is repped by Paradigm, manager David Guillod and attorney Lev Ginsburg.

"It doesn't take long at all for the personal and the political to merge seamlessly in 5 Broken Cameras, an immediately involving and moving portrait of the Palestinian troubles through the eyes of one of the film's co-directors, Emad Burnat," begins Chris Cabin in Slant. "A lifelong resident of the small village of Bil'in, Burnat quickly went from being a man of the soil to a man with a movie camera in 2005, just as his fourth son, Gibreel, was born in his small West Bank village and has continued to film the struggles of his village against the settlers — a word used to refer to nearly all Israeli private citizens who occupy disputed territory. Spanning from the birth of Gibreel to the end of 2010, 5 Broken Cameras is made up almost entirely of footage shot by Mr Burnat, which was then edited by Guy Davidi, an Israeli filmmaker and film professor who's...

Here's the trailer for a great looking film based on a true story called The Robber about a marathon runner who robs banks. The film was directed by Austrian director Benjamin Heisenberg, and it looks pretty suspenseful.

The film is based on the book by Martin Prinz which was published in English under the title of On the Run. Here's the description of the book,

In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria. Known as Pumpgun Ronnie because of the weapon he used and the Ronald Reagan mask he wore for his robberies, he sometimes robbed two or three banks on the same day. He was also wanted for one murder, unconnected with the bank robberies. Unusually for a bank-robber, he was also a keen amateur marathon runner and had won several races. He jumped out of a window during questioning and escaped by running into the Vienna Woods.

We first started to get wind of The Robber, Austrian director Benjamin Heisenberg's account of the true story of a marathon runner who robs banks, when it hit a couple festivals last year. It was promptly snapped up by Sony [1] for a possible remake, but in the meantime the well-received original is getting a limited release in the States. Check out a trailer below. This is basically the same trailer that was cut for Germany, only with a few English-language changes. Still, it looks like it might be a thrilling little film. The source material is Martin Prinz‘s book Der Rauber, which was published in English as On the Run. and is described in detail as follows: In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria. Known as Pumpgun Ronnie because of the weapon he used and the Ronald Reagan mask he wore for his robberies,...

German filmmaker Benjamin Heisenberg has caught American audiences attention with his new thrilling new film called "The Robber." Based off the true story of Johann Rettenberger, his new written and directed tale showcases a cast that includes Andreas Lust, Franziska Weisz and Florian Wotruba.A champion marathoner leads a double life as a serial bank robber, sprinting between fixes (and away from police cavalcades) as many as three times a day. Based on the real-life story of Austria's most-wanted bank robber of the 1980s, Benjamin Heisenberg's thriller is a lean, visceral study of pathological compulsion, featuring a riveting central performance by Andreas Lust (Revanche)."The Robber" will finally step out of the film festival circuit and into limited theaters on April 29th. Source: Apple Trailers...

Late last year Sony snatched up the remake rights to Benjamin Heisenberg‘s Austrian-German thriller The Robber. The film tells the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, who also had a little addiction of robbing banks. It was an official selection at the New York Film Festival and our own Raffi Asdourian reviewed it, which you can read here. The original, which cost less than $300,000 stars Andreas Lust, the lead of one of my favorite films of the last few years, Revanche.

As for the remake, the producer of Spider-Man 1-3 and the Marc Webb reboot, Laura Ziskin, will also produce here. There has been rumors of The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield leading the film, but nothing has been confirmed. Check out the trailer for the original below via Apple.

Synopsis:

A champion marathoner leads a double life as a serial bank robber, sprinting between fixes (and away...

We haven't made an entry into our Underappreciated Gems series in quite some time, and we've had a lot of requests for more coverage of Netflix Instant, so I thought we'd combine the two and come up with a new round of Underappreciated Gems currently available on Netflix Instant.

The criteria for an Underappreciated Gem remains as it always does: A movie that didn't make at least $10 million at the box office. I doubt many of these films, from the last three years, even crossed the $2 million mark. But that doesn't make them any less worthy.

Links go to the Netflix page.

8: The Mormon Proposition: 8: The Mormon Proposition is a stirring, tragically depressing documentary about the Mormon Church's massive efforts to support and pass California's Proposition 8 ballot initiative (also called the California Marriage Protection Act), which in 2008 redefined marriage in the state of California as being only between a man and a woman,...

One of the most intriguing films at the New York Film Festival this fall was Benjamin Heisenberg‘s Austrian-German thriller The Robber. Telling the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, who also had a little addiction of robbing banks, this was one film I couldn’t miss. It also stars Andreas Lust, the star of one of my favorite films of the last few years, Revanche. Our own Raffi Asdourian thought highly of The Robber in his Nyff review.

Variety now reports that Sony has acquired the English-language remake rights on the cheap. The film originally premiered at which Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, and then had a German theatrical debut in March. After also coming to Austria and France, the film has made a little less than $300,00.

There are no details on who will star in or direct the remake, only that the producer of Spider-Man 1-3 and the Marc Webb reboot,...

The Robber is based on the true story of Johannes Rettenberger aka Pumpgun Ronny, named after the Ronald Reagan mask he would wear when he would rob banks. Seeing the Berlin Film Festival selected film at the New York Film Festival is a surprise -- because it’s basically just your regular action/suspense film. Actor Andreas Lust delivers a strong perf in a role that is the antithesis of his run in the Oscar nominated Revanche, in which he played the detective. Now he’s the one on the run. Literally, on the run. Rettenberger is our first bank robber and marathon running champion in cinema. Director Benjamin Heisenberg does not do much with the comparison though, apart from some long set pieces where he…runs. He runs away from banks that he’s robbed. He runs from cops chasing after him. He runs to escape prison. He runs marathons as well.

Is there anything in moviedom more consistently frustrating than the "arthouse thriller"? 

I'm not talking about films created as commercial thrillers and subsequently embraced by cineastes. I'm referring to dramas, and sometimes romances, that are so "nuanced" that they risk putting audiences to sleep, and so cover for themselves by including watered-down tropes from more populist, engaging fare. A repentant serial killer retires to an Alpine village to collect pension checks and butterflies. A kidnapper adopts a puppy and we're meant to contrast his loving treatment of it with his callous disregard for young human beings. You know the type of bastardized genre I'm referring to--the promise of full-on action or suspense is always lurking there as a kind of tease, but the movie gets away with never fully delivering the goods because its high-minded goals are thought to elevate it beyond that obligation. 

Well, I'm happy to report to you that The Robber,...

I came across Time Out New York’s list of their top 50 foreign films of all time. Although a very good list, I felt, personally, there were some omissions. I decided to come up with my own top list. 50 is a huge number for me to tackle so I also decided to scale it down to 10. Seems to be a good round number. Most of these films are in the Criterion Collection but there are a few on my list that are not, but I do feel that these few should be.

I’m also going to follow Time Out New York’s guideline of no silent film (although I do love silent films) and no films from England, Australia or any other English speaking countries.

Also, my list is going to gravitate to more contemporary films rather than classics. That’s just the way I roll!

My Favorite Foreign...

This is the podcast dedicated to The Criterion Collection. Rudie Obias, Ryan Gallagher & James McCormick discuss Criterion News & Rumors and Criterion New Releases, they also analyze, discuss & highlight Cc #502, Götz Spielmann’s 2008 film, Revanche, along with “Variations On a Theme”.

Special Guest: Laremy Legel – The Editor In Chief of Film.com.

This Week’s Theme: Tragic Coincidences in Movies

What do you think of their show? Please send them your feed back: CriterionCast@gmail.com or call their voicemail line @ 347.878.3430 or follow them on twitter @CriterionCast or Comment on their blog, http://CriterionCast.com.

Thank you for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe to their podcast and please leave your reviews in their iTunes feed.

They broadcast every episode Live on UStream every Friday @ 7pm Est/4pm Pst. Join in on the conversation @ CriterionCast.com/Live

Our next episode they will highlight and discuss Criterion #232 Yasujiro Ozu’s 1934 & 1959 films, A...

Disc 2 episodes are bonus/supplement episodes of The CriterionCast. Rudie Obias, Ryan Gallagher & James McCormick ramble on and on about movies and movie experiences. “On The Screen” is where they discuss anything and everything that has been on their screens in the week. So anything from TV & movies to music & web junk, everything “On The Screen” is up for grabs. This is what they recommend to you, their listeners.

Our Summer 2010 film review for this week is The A-Team:

Special Guest: Elisabeth Rappe – A writer from Cinematical.com, Chud.com and The Flickcast.

What do you think of their show? Please send them your feed back: CriterionCast@gmail.com or call their voicemail line @ 347.878.3430 or follow them on twitter @CriterionCast or Comment on their blog, http://CriterionCast.com.

Thank You! for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe to their podcast and please leave your reviews in their iTunes feed.

This is the podcast dedicated to The Criterion Collection. Rudie Obias, Ryan Gallagher & James McCormick discuss Criterion News & Rumors and Criterion New Releases, they also analyze, discuss & highlight Criterion #504, Steve McQueen’s 2008 film, Hunger, along with “Variations On a Theme”.

Special Guest: Elisabeth Rappe – A writer from Cinematical.com, Chud.com and The Flickcast.

This Week’s “Variation on a Theme”: Political Protest in Movies

What do you think of their show? Please send them your feed back: CriterionCast@gmail.com or call their voicemail line @ 347.878.3430 or follow them on twitter @CriterionCast or Comment on their blog, http://CriterionCast.com.

Thank You! for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe to their podcast and please leave your reviews in their iTunes feed.

They broadcast every episode Live on UStream every Friday @ 7pm Est/4pm Pst. Join in on the conversation @ CriterionCast.com/Live

Our next episode they will highlight and...

The Diagonale Festival is over and that means the Austrian Film Prize for Best Feature Film was handed to Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel's La Pivellina - the portrait has been on a successful run picking up several festival awards and special mentions (see trailer). - Austria Film Scene: Local The Diagonale Festival is over and that means the Austrian Film Prize for Best Feature Film was handed to Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel's La Pivellina - the portrait has been on a successful run picking up several festival awards and special mentions (see trailer). Hana, dul, sed … by Brigitte Weich and Karin Macher won Best Documentary. The doc is about three female North Korean soccer players and their life after they missed the qualification for the Olympic Games. Andreas Lust and Franziska Weisz won Best Actor/Actress for The Robber. Kick Off by Hüseyin...

Austria Film Scene: Local The Diagonale Festival is over and that means the Austrian Film Prize for Best Feature Film was handed to Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel's La Pivellina - the portrait has been on a successful run picking up several festival awards and special mentions (see trailer). Hana, dul, sed … by Brigitte Weich and Karin Macher won Best Documentary. The doc is about three female North Korean soccer players and their life after they missed the qualification for the Olympic Games. Andreas Lust and Franziska Weisz won Best Actor/Actress for The Robber. Kick Off by Hüseyin Tabak won the Audience Award and the youth Jury Award. The film is centered around three players of the Austrian National Team for the homeless soccer World Cup and their struggle to get back into society (German-language trailer) - the film was released last month. Pepperminta by Pipilotti Rist is...

Iron Man 2 (12A)

(Jon Favreau, 2010, Us) Robert Downey Jr, Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow. 125 mins

Considering his CEO status, it's no surprise that Tony Stark's return feels more like an upgrade than a sequel. It's this season's must-have tech-form with a human interface, machine-tooled for enhanced multiplex performance, even if it has trouble finding much to say. Downey divides his time between battling his own ego and Rourke's ridiculous Russian baddie – among other myriad convoluted Marvel-universe subplots – but it's all about as exciting as the launch of a new MacBook.

Revanche (15)

(Götz Spielmann, 2008, Aus) Johannes Krisch, Irina Potapenko. 122 mins

An Austrian noir thriller, this takes the heist-gone-wrong set-up to intriguing new territory – the countryside – giving our sympathetic crook a new perspective, and bringing him perilously close to his cop nemesis.

Valhalla Rising (15)

(Nicolas Winding Refn, 2009, Den/UK) Mads Mikkelsen, Maarten Stevenson. 100 mins

This gory, hallucinatory Viking odyssey makes an indelible impression,...

A convoluted and somewhat over-elaborate Austrian film tackling revenge is saved by astute directing and good performances, writes Peter Bradshaw

Austrian director Götz Friedrich's Revanche is a meditation on revenge which is intelligent and well-made, while at the same time rather contrived and implausible; it has a distinctive sort of Euro-hardcore sheen, mainly due to the superbly lucid, diamond-hard cinematography from Martin Gschlacht. Alex (Johannes Krisch) is an ex-con who works as a barman in a Vienna brothel where he has fallen in love with one of the girls there, Tamara (Irina Potapenko). He periodically visits his cantankerous grandfather (Hannes Thanheiser) in his country farm: the old man gets taken to church by Susanne (Ursula Strauss), wife of local cop Robert (Andreas Lust). The connection draws them all together in a web of coincidence and fate. There is something frankly rickety and elaborate about Friedrich's narrative structure, but the...

Just released on DVD and Blu-ray this week, courtesy of the Criterion Collection, is Götz Spielmann's riveting neo-noir Revanche, which was Oscar-nominated last year for Best Foreign Language Film:

A gripping thriller and a tragic drama of nearly Greek proportions, Revanche is the stunning, Oscar-nominated international breakthrough of Austrian filmmaker Götz Spielmann. In a ragged section of Vienna, hardened ex-con Alex (the mesmerizing Johannes Krisch) works in a brothel, where he falls for Ukrainian hooker Tamara. Their desperate plans for escape unexpectedly intersect with the lives of a rural cop and his seemingly content wife. With meticulous, elegant direction, Spielmann creates a tense, existential, and surprising portrait of vengeance and redemption, and a journey into the darkest forest of human nature, in which violence and beauty exist side by side.

Sometime last May, I sat down with Spielmann to talk about "the first Buddhist thriller" (as he recalls an L.

With President’s Day weekend behind us it’s now time to think about some late Valentine’s Day presents. In case you want to pick up something extra for your valentine or you completely forgot to get something at all, a great movie on Blu-ray or DVD makes a perfect gift. Fortunately, there’s some new ones coming out this week just in time.

Among this week’s selection we’re interested in are new to Blu-ray movies such as Law Abiding Citizen, Halo Legends, the Dirty Harry Collection, Contempt, Akira Kurosawa’s Ran and debut of TV series Barnaby Jones and the latest installment of Cannon. Also, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (pictured above with Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro) gets the 20th Anniversary treatment with a new Blu-ray release.

Movies

Black Dynamite ~ Michael Jai White (Blu-ray and DVD)

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever ~ Michael Bowen,...

DVD Playhouse—February 2010

By

Allen Gardner

Hunger (Criterion) Harrowing true story of imprisoned Ira member Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) and his 1981 hunger strike protesting the British government’s refusal to recognize him, and other Ira members as political prisoners. Director Steve McQueen delivers the story with true filmmaking panache, mixing startling imagery that blends both stunning beauty and stomach-churning horror. Fassbender is absolutely brilliant in the lead. Not for the faint-of-heart, but not to be missed or, particularly, ignored. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Interviews with McQueen and Fassbender; Short documentary; 1981 episode of BBC series “Panorama” that covers the Ira hunger strike; Trailer. Widescreen. DTS-hd audio on Blu-ray.

Adam (20th Century Fox) Quirky romantic comedy about an eccentric, borderline Asperger’s Syndrome, astronomy buff (Hugh Dancy) who is drawn out of his self-imposed shell by a beautiful and sympathetic neighbor (Rose Byrne). Charming film with engaging performances by the two leads,...

Götz Spielmann's Revanche is a rather slow but engaging film that uses a revenge plot to examine themes of love, loss, and connectedness.

An ex-con named Alex (Johannes Krisch) is an ex-con who works in a Vienna brothel called Cinderella. His girlfriend Tamara (Irina Potepenko) is a Hungarian immigrant who works at Cinderella as a prostitute. Tamara, who is favored by the brothel owner for a position as a high-class call girl, is deeply in debt, and Alex's prospects are equally grim. Alex devises a misguided plan to help the couple see their way through the hard times. Through a series of mistakes, Alex and Tamara encounter a police officer (Andreas Lust) whose actions change their lives forever. 

Revanche can be categorized as a thriller but Götz Spielmann intentionally plays against any expectations associated with the genre. Revanche is structured like two separate films connected by a significant life event.

Salute Your Shorts is a weekly column that looks at short films, music videos, commercials or any other short form visual media that generally gets ignored.Despite Götz Spielmann’s reputation in Austria, Revanche was the first of his five features to reach the States. It has some unfortunate problems, but its release was a nice introduction to the neglected director nonetheless, and the feature was eventually nominated for an Academy Award. The film is largely set up as a string of binaries, with one of its chief concerns being how city life contrasts with rural life and the natural world. Revanche...

The always-fascinating Chlotrudis Awards have gone heavily international with their nominees this year. Thanks to FrozenFlame in the forums. Movie 35 Shots of Rum The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call — New...

Tulpan

Sergei Dvortsevoy created an impressive coming-of-age tale with this majestic treatment of life on the Kazakh steppe, following the return of Asa, a young sailor eager to make a place of his own in the traditional nomadic lifestyle. But to do so he must woo and marry the only available woman for miles - an elusive and almost entirely symbolic girl named Tulpan, whose unambiguous rejection gives his life its first meaningful hurdle. The bleak, hardscrabble life endured by the protagonists, implicitly vied with by modern civilization's hedonistic pull, gives this allegory impressive, romantic, and heartbreaking dimensions.

Revanche

Götz Spielmann's arthouse noir is a deft and entertaining treatise on life in the margins of late-capitalism, a pitch-dark European take on The Postman Always Rings Twice. The bleak, predictable ending to a heist meant to bring two people away from the venal desolation of life in the city gives Revanche its initial momentum,...

George Clooney, Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air (Dale Robinette / Paramount) Denver Film Critics Society 2010 Nominations. Winners: Jan. 27, 2010. Best Film: A Serious Man, directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Up in the Air, directed by Jason Reitman Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow Best Foreign Language Film: Thirst, directed by Chan-wook Park Sin Nombre, directed by Cary Jôji Fukunaga Summer Hours, directed by Olivier Assayas Revanche, directed by Götz Spielmann Best Documentary: The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos Anvil! The Story of Anvil, directed by Sacha Gervasi Best [...]...

The Denver Film Critics Society, of which I am a member, have announced their nominees for the 2009-2010 Dfcs Awards.

Up in the Air leads the pack with seven nods.

Winners will be announced on January 27, 2010.

Best Film:

A Serious Man, directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Up in the Air, directed by Jason Reitman

Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams

The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Best Actor:

George Clooney, Up in the Air

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Viggo Mortensen, The Road

Morgan Freeman, Invictus

Best Actress:

Carey Mulligan, An Education

Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Abbie Cornish, Bright Star

Best Director:

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Duncan Jones, Moon

Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Best Supporting Actor:

Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones

Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Christian McKay, Me and Orson Welles

Best Supporting Actress:

Mo’Nique,...